Neighbors denounce abandonment of mentally ill and homeless man in Havana

Neighbors in an area of Vedado, in Havana, reported the abandonment by the authorities of a manmentally ill and in conditions ofextreme destitution in his own house.

After repeated complaints from the user ofFacebook Diana Rosa Morales to the government andPublic health of the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, in the Cuban capital, an ambulance picked up this Sunday afternoon a resident of A street, between Zapata and 33rd, whoHe had been lying among garbage and his personal belongings for more than 48 hours, with a serious schizophrenia crisis..

In Morales' profile on the social network there is more than one complaint and shocking images of the abandoned conditions in which the patient was, who was only identified as Víctor or Vitico.

In a first publication, Morales pointed out that “not even in Haiti” is there a case like that of his neighbor, who has suffered from schizophrenia since he was a child and has no family.

“He is lying in that garbage dump that is his house, all the neighbors are tired of calling everywhere and nothing is resolved. Please, someone take sides in this case,” he claimed in his first complaint, in which he shared photos that show the level of destitution in which Vitico lives.

In another publication, Morales reiterated his complaint about the case. He said that, after two in the afternoon this Sunday, “an ambulance does not appear to pick up Vitico and take him to a hospital. Since nine in the morning, almost 48 hours, lying there. “They are waiting for him to die lying there.”

In a third publication, the woman shared the moment when an ambulance takes Vitico out of her house, although in the video the neighbors can be heard arguing with the ambulance workers, who demanded that the video of that moment be deleted. The tension even almost reaches physical violence between them.

In the comments of these publications, a user questioned the little desire to work that the first responders showed during the care of this case.

“The ambulance colleagues don't want to work. They have to justify their salary by doing something productive: picking up a poor man dying of hunger, misery and lack of medicine. If it disgusts them, then why are they in that job, because many have had to pick up people in worse conditions in accidents. This is where we realize the lack of humanity that these ambulance workers have, they bother doing their own work, that what they are doing is not a favor. It is an obligation or else they will go behind a bureau as simple as that,” argued the Internet user.

Another opinion reads: “That's Víctor. By God, what a sad life for a person who is not mentally well. Where are the social workers in that town? Let them do their job.”

“They still say that it is humiliating that foreigners who come as tourists throw away money. This is indeed humiliating, to see a country that talks so much about citizen security and here is the proof. Everything is a lie. THE PEOPLE OF CUBA ARE DYING OF HUNGER, WHAT A SAD REALITY,” the user added.

“Diana, it's good that you uploaded it, but I don't think they will listen to you. This government only attends to the elderly and cases like those on TV, and on the networks everything is a facade and lies. In reality, there are more helpless and helpless people in this country than in Haiti,” another opinion concluded.